Chapter 40
Once Haatim reached the other side of the portal, something shifted in the realm he’d come to. On his side of the portal, it had seemed as though he floated in the air in a black void, freely able to move around but a touch disoriented. On this side, however, it felt considerably more horrible.
The pervasive sense of otherworldliness intensified dramatically, and everything felt wrong. It felt like he was drowning, but instead of water, it had the substance of a heavy tar weighing him down. The green ichor on the walls clung to him, trying to blot out his soul. He couldn’t wipe it away, and it felt suffocating.
Haatim could sense himself on both sides of the silver ring simultaneously. Only his essence had crossed over, and the link to his body in the real world had weakened. This world seemed like a living creature, and wherever he’d come, it would prove reluctant to let him leave.
However, he couldn’t worry about that right now. Arthur remained over here, trapped beneath the green ichor somewhere up ahead. Haatim moved toward Arthur down the hallway.
Outside the portal, he could move with only a thought and cover any distance simply by willing it. In here, on the other hand, it felt like he’d had heavy weights strapped to his ankles to weigh him down. It reminded him of slogging his way through mud, and each step proved harder to take than the last.
By the time he made it across to Arthur, the disgusting green ichor covered him. His body no longer remained tangible, yet the stuff still managed to stick and hold onto him. Where it touched, he felt cold and empty, as if it drained his life force. Similar to when Abigail had touched him, only much worse. The stuff had buried Arthur totally, and digging him out wouldn’t give any fun.
A glance back showed that the silver ring had almost closed. That gave his only chance of escape; though, by now, it looked a million kilometers away. Neither time nor distance seemed to work the same way here as they did outside, and so he had no idea how long it would take for the portal to close.
He turned back to Arthur, steeling himself for what he would have to do. Then he reached down and scooped at the ichor.
It felt like sticking his hands into a bucket of frozen ice; only ice wouldn’t have proven nearly cold enough. This seemed more like liquid nitrogen, and the pain almost blinded him. Not normal cold, though, as rather than going numb to the pain, it only grew more intense.
Within seconds, his mind screamed for him to stop, but he refused. He pushed down the pain and kept scooping, getting as much of the stuff off Arthur’s soul as he could.
“Wake up.” Haatim reached out and touched the identity of Arthur, which seemed less like a humanoid spirit and more like a golden blob, vaguely humanlike though completely disembodied. When he touched it, the blob quivered. “We don’t have much time. You have to wake up.”
Nothing happened. Arthur didn’t budge, and the spiritual entity didn’t change. Too weak, Haatim realized. Too drained by the ichor and his time spent in this place.
Maybe nothing remained to wake. It was possible that Arthur had stayed here for too long and that he had nothing left of his humanity.
Haatim couldn’t think like that, though. He had to believe that something remained, and that it would take only a small nudge to bring back the powerful man. One last time, he glanced back. Only a small ring of the portal showed. Mere moments made the difference between them escaping or getting trapped here for good.
Here, in Surgat’s hell, where the Council had trapped him, and where spending an eternity wouldn’t prove any fun. It sapped him, drained him, and ate away at his soul.
Haatim steeled his resolve, and then turned back to Arthur. Now or never.
“Come on! You need to get up. We need to get out of here.”
He could sense understanding from Arthur, but also weakness. The man sat broken, barely conscious, and unable to focus on anything outside himself.
Haatim remembered when Abigail had touched him, and it had seemed like she siphoned his energy. Perhaps, he could do something similar here, like feeding Arthur to bring him back to consciousness.
He reached out and touched the golden globe of energy. Focused, he pushed essence out of himself and directed it into Arthur. There didn’t seem much left. After everything that had happened today, he now ran on empty.
The effect happened in an instant, and the globe shivered under Haatim’s touch as the essence poured into it. Though it weakened him, the idea that it strengthened Arthur emboldened him.
However, to wake the globe and give Arthur the strength to get out of here, he would need a lot more energy.
Maybe more than Haatim could give. If he failed, they would both get trapped here.
With the portal so near to closing, Haatim felt unsure of whether he could escape now even if he fled this very instant. The place had a hold on him, and he’d weakened. It would take everything in his power to get out. The thought of spending the rest of eternity trapped here in this place terrified him.
“Last chance,” he whispered.
But, he couldn’t go. Not without Arthur. If he abandoned him now, he would condemn the man to spending the rest of eternity trapped here. He wouldn’t be able to live with himself.
With a final push, he turned back and bridged the connection to Arthur, feeding energy into the orb. His essence revitalized Arthur, and the man came back and reclaimed his identity. It happened slowly, though. Oh so slowly.
It felt like the world closed in on Haatim. He remembered speaking to Father Paladina and how his gift wasn’t endless. At a certain point, it switched over to tapping into his soul, and now, he’d made that switch. It ate away at him, siphoning off parts of his existence, but he couldn’t stop. Arthur had nearly come back.
He only needed a little bit more.
The weakness overtook him, and he wouldn’t manage to make an exit from this realm now. Not anymore. He couldn’t possibly escape, not when he’d given too much of himself to Arthur, and so, he had doomed himself to getting stuck here for eternity.
Though, maybe, Arthur could still get out. Haatim pushed harder, forcing every drop of life essence he could out of himself and into Arthur. More fully now, the man came to life.
And then reality went out of focus.
***
What is happening?
The thought came as a surprise when it flitted through Arthur’s mind. From where had it come? Why had it come? He hadn’t had a conscious thought in what felt like ages.
Arthur hadn’t even realized what it felt like to no longer think until he’d lost the ability to do so. He’d lived in a sad and dark emptiness, which took from him every time he tried to reclaim his reality.
As a consequence, he had closed himself off to that world, refusing to let his torturers harm him any further. He had retreated into himself and locked himself away, accepting that he would never escape from this realm and that no reason existed for him to allow himself to think anymore.
And yet, here Arthur sat.
It felt like waking from the longest and most painful nightmare he’d ever experienced but so much worse than that. Surgat and his pet demons had rebuilt and broken him on a constant basis before tiring of him.
Eventually, they had forgotten him and left him to his own devices, which almost proved worse. The green ooze filling the place had sapped his strength and left him constantly cold and vulnerable.
He ignored all of that, focusing only on the tangible details of what happened right then, and tried to understand what had changed to wake him. Arthur felt strong, stronger than he had since coming to this place.
Something had happened, he realized. Most of the demonic horde had gone, and what remained shivered with excitement when they prepared to leave too. He could sense them and their hatred and lust. They didn’t even seem to notice him anymore.
Then he noticed the orb floating next to him. The light of energy represented an entity like himself, but this one looked completely different. It shined with a purer light than his, but it had also almost extinguished.
Arthur didn’t recognize it, and could only sense that it didn’t belong here. Was it a person? An outsider? How did it get here? Had this woken him? It seemed a likely possibility, but why?
Then the silver ring in the distance caught his attention. A portal to the other world. His world. He could see through it to light beyond, his home. The ring had almost closed and would disappear in only seconds. The demonic army flitted through that breach, one by one, and headed to the world above. As he sat there, he could also sense the demons beyond the portal, flying in that world and answering Surgat’s call, and other things, too. More people. Frieda, and Dominick.
Then, he sensed her.
Abigail.
She lived, out there in the world above, but battled for her life. This moment, he had dreaded and prayed would never come to pass when he might lose more than just the sweet girl he had raised like a daughter.
He couldn’t worry about anything else right now. No, he had to get out of here, find Abigail, and escape this hell before any of the demons realized he had awoken.
To that end, Arthur propelled himself toward the hole, grabbing the husk of white light at his feet, and raced forward. Though moving through here felt torturous, nearly impossible, he had learned how to navigate it through his years spent down here.
It would be a close call. The portal had almost shut, and it would make a tight fit to get out into the world above. He moved as fast as he could, pushing through the ooze and toward the surface.
Almost there.
Arthur pushed, scrambled, and dove through the portal just before it sealed. The green ooze covering him, and the husk of the person he carried, didn’t go through the portal, but peeled off and stayed behind. Whatever they were, they couldn’t exist up here.
Suddenly, everything felt softer, and Arthur’s soul rejoiced. The world lightened and made more sense. His soul washed clean in the light of his world, and he felt only joy.
However, it proved short-lived. He could also feel his friends up here, battling for their lives. The person who’d woken him thinned, and it wouldn’t take long for it to break down completely and evaporate. He needed to find the body it belonged to and return it home.
Arthur had an awareness of Abigail here, too, but couldn’t see her. No matter where he searched, he couldn’t locate her in this realm. Frustrated, he hunted instead for Frieda and Dominick. He found them in one of the buildings up above, fighting against the demons.
Another body lay up there with them. Did this soul belong to it? Arthur raced for the surface, gliding away from the portal. Things continued to change as his identity shifted and took form.
His body grew tangible, and the closer he got to the surface, the more real he became. Reality shifted, and the world became more real, until he felt like himself once more. Arthur pushed the soul into the waiting body, and then started his final trek between this realm and his own.
